Page:The Queens of England.djvu/549

ANNE. 497 with William and Mary in their intrigues for the British throne, and it was with her that the report originated in the same year of the spurious origin of the new-born prince, who was afterward generally designated the Pretender. When the crisis of the great political revolution arrived Anne made her escape by night from her residence at the Cockpit at White- hall, during the absence of King James with the army. He had confided in her to the last, without the remotest suspicion of her hostile intentions. She proceeded to Nottingham, headed a large body of troops and openly espoused the cause of the Prince of Orange. And on the very night when her father was making his retreat over a rather stormy sea Anne of Denmark, having returned to her old quarters in London as if nothing unusual had happened, went to the play! Her zeal for the Protestant religion, in which she had been strictly educated, cannot palliate or account for such an unfilial and needless display of ingratitude. On the 24th of July, 1689, the Princess Anne gave birth to a son, who was created Duke of Gloucester. Anne had thir- teen children, but this was the only one that lived ; and, indeed, it was with difficulty that this one survived to the age of eleven, when, after a display of much precocity under the frequent ailments incidental to water on the brain, he died of an attack of scarlet fever. This loss was one of the keenest pangs which Anne suffered, for the depth of her affection as a mother has never been questioned. During the reign of William and Mary this princess was repeatedly at difference with them, and, instead of reaping the benefits which her former intrigues in their favor might have warranted her to expect, she found herself subjected to fre- quent indignities at their hands. The sisters are said to have been on ill terms to the last, although Anne certainly sent a message of reconciliation to the death-bed of Mary. It was notorious that William hated his sister-in-law in his heart, and his true feeling toward her is tolerably evinced by his refusal to see her when about to die. From the time of the Duke of Gloucester's birth Anne increased greatly in person, and became a martyr to frequent attacks of dropsy, which rendered her unable to walk. She x A ad recourse to cold baths and hunting. She was excessively fond of the latter recreation, which she pursued in a chaise during the summer months, according to the custom then in